Unai Emery makes Jhon Duran mistake in confirmed Aston Villa XI v Manchester United
Unai Emery has named his Aston Villa starting XI for the Premier League clash against Manchester United on Sunday 6 October.
The Villans will be looking to build on their magnificent 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday (2 October).
They face Erik Ten Hag’s men who haven’t recently had much to write home about as they find themselves winless in their last four games.
Villa have confirmed their lineup via the club’s official X account (6 October) and have made three changes but the fact that Jhon Duran has been benched once again feels like a mistake.
Jhon Duran benched for Aston Villa against Manchester United
Duran has been in stellar form this season, whether that be off the bench or starting a game, he’s been a player that Emery has been able to rely upon week in and week out.
Fans and pundits alike called for the Colombia international to start the game against the Red Devils and, after his 20-minute cameo against Bayern Munich, it’s clear to see why.
Although he was only brought on in the 70th minute against Bayern, the striker managed to bag the winning goal just nine minutes after coming on and maintained a 100 per cent shot accuracy [Sofascore].
As he was only on the field for 20 minutes, Duran had just 13 touches of the ball and failed to attempt any dribbles past players.
He only had a 50 per cent pass success rate too, but again this can be caveated by a small sample size with only six attempted.
Duran was deployed in attack as a sole striker when he replaced Ollie Watkins and while his defensive capabilities aren’t usually tested, they were against Vincent Kompany’s men.
He won 100 per cent of his ground duels and 66 per cent of those in the air. He did manage to lose possession four times but when you’re the focal point of an attack, you’re bound to lose the ball.
The striker also made two clearances and tackled the opposition on two occasions.
Emery will be looking towards his three changes from the game against Bayern to make a difference with the Spaniard perhaps even calling upon Duran to score yet another late winner.
If he does then surely at some point he is going to start getting the nod from the off.
In other Aston Villa news, Bryan King has been left baffled by the Morgan Rogers England call Lee Carsley has made.
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